The Golden Streets Festival, an “open streets” event, will be coming through San Marino and seven other local communities on Sunday, June 26 to celebrate the completion of the Metro Gold Line extension project.
BikeSGV, the event organizer, provided San Marino residents with detailed information about the CicLAvia-type event at an informational meeting at the Crowell Public Library on Tuesday, May 10. Twenty residents were in attendance.
The 17-mile route will start at the South Pasadena Metro Station, pass through San Marino, Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Los Angeles County, Irwindale and end at the Azusa Metro Station.
About three miles of the north side of Huntington Drive will be closed off to traffic from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the day of the event. The south side will be open to normal eastbound traffic.
San Marino Police will be maintaining soft closures where Huntington Drive intersects with Virginia Road, Sierra Madre Boulevard/San Marino Avenue, Los Robles Avenue, San Gabriel Boulevard, Winston Avenue/Del Mar Avenue and Garfield Avenue.
SMPD’s Lt. Aaron Blondè was present during the meeting. For travelers trying to go westbound by car, he recommended that residents take California Boulevard or Monterey Road.
Each participating city will have its own activity hub located next to its Metro station. Since San Marino does not have a Metro station, its hub will be in the east parking lot of San Marino High School.
San Marino’s hub will include eight vendor tents, four food trucks, a first-aid tent, a free water tent, restrooms and a possible stage.
Many businesses along the route will likely be open to the public. BikeSGV Executive Director Wes Reutimann anticipates that stores selling food and refreshments will benefit the most.
“These types of businesses tend to experience an increase in sales,” said Reutimann, a product of San Marino schools.
Participants can start and end anywhere along the route, whether they decide to walk, jog, skate, or bike. They can even ride the Gold Line part of the way or the entire length of the route, collecting 2 in. by 2 in. city-specific stickers.
San Marino’s sticker is the façade of a red trolley flanked by rows of palm trees.
Reutimann led a 25-minute presentation explaining the many exciting activities that residents can participate in during this first-of-its-kind event in the San Gabriel Valley.
“It’s a novel thing for most people to move through these streets not in a car,” he said.
The experience of viewing artists from the Pasadena Chalk Festival draw chalk murals, he continued, will be “an opportunity for people to get engaged with arts.”
Keeping with the theme of health and wellness promotion, visitors will have an opportunity to participate in free Zumba and yoga classes at various points along the route, and run in a point-to-point half marathon.
Reutimann said that runners who complete the route, or even one stretch and end in Duarte, will receive a free Metro TAP rider card and a 626 Golden Streets t-shirt. He recommended that folks who plan on getting on and off the Gold Line several times throughout the day should get a Metro day pass.
When asked if there will be another even like this next year, Reutimann explained that its very rare for eight jurisdictions to work in conjunction in the way they have for this event.
“Just because of the logistical complexity, there probably wont be another event like this soon,” he said.
The event has insurance coverage of $5 million. City of San Marino staff have reviewed and approved the adequacy of the coverage, per a request made by the San Marino City Council when signing the festival participation agreement.
People planning to participate can start planning their day at the beginning of June when BikeSGV publishes the final schedule for the event. For more information about the event, visit www.626goldenstreets.com.
